A Joint Statement by Human Rights NGOs An appeal for public, clear opposition to China’s rights record on Xi Jinping’s visit We write to the US administration as a group of International US-based organizations advocating for human rights in China, Tibet, East Turkestan, and other regions. For decades, we have regularly engaged with successive U.S. governments and representatives – sharing information, raising concerns and advancing recommendations for U.S. policy on China. Our groups provide a wide breadth of advocacy expertise and experience with respect to human rights in China. Today, during the Chinese President’s visit to the Mar-a-lago resort, we call on US President Trump and his administration to share our concerns and recommendations, and to clearly and strongly communicate them. Our group shares the common view that advocacy for human rights and freedom cannot be compromised in the...

Benedict Rogers Human rights activist, writer and Conservative candidate Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/ben/pope-francis-china_b_12831122.html Dear Holy Father, Like every true Catholic in the world, I love you and respect your authority as the Successor of St Peter. Like a great many people in the world, well beyond the Catholic Church, I recognise the beautiful message you, as Pope Francis, bring to the world. And as a new Catholic who came into the Church little over ten days after your election to the papacy, my Catholic faith is inspired and intertwined with your pontificate. I became a Catholic on Palm Sunday, 2013, received into the Church by Burma’s first-ever Cardinal Charles Maung Bo. Although I am British, I became a Catholic in an Asian country emerging from dictatorship, inspired by a Church that has endured decades of persecution. I have also lived in China and...

Photo courtesy of United States Mission Geneva The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) is delighted to praise Dr Jianli Yang, Chinese dissident and human rights activist for over 25 years, for his significant efforts to bring together different ethnic, religious and political groups from the territory of the People’s Republic of China and in getting them to work together to promote their common goals. UNPO commends his commitment to the non-violent struggle for human rights and democracy. For the past quarter of a century, Mr Yang has seen as his mission to facilitate a peaceful transition of the PRC to the respect of human rights, genuine rule of law, and democratic governance for all. He believes that such a transition can only be achieved by the peoples themselves, through united efforts but also thanks to the support of the...

YANG Jianli TENG Biao This week, China’s President Xi, in Washington for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Summit, will also meet on the side with President Obama. Obama continues to visibly rely on Xi’s professed commitments to the U.S., ranging from explicit to implicit, on an array of issues: carbon emission reduction, anti-nuclear proliferation, policing commercial hackers, and U.N. Security Council effort to stop ISIS, among others. While monitoring how Xi fulfills his commitments, and whether he can be trusted to do so in the future, Obama would do well to remember a reliable indicator. History teaches us that, when a dictator betrays the rights guaranteed the people by his nation’s own laws and constitution, his international agreements and commitment also are untrustworthy. In the 20th Century, we learned that lesson well. So it behoves Obama to press Xi about how...

#FreeZhangkai Campaign Website: www.freezhangkai.com Human rights lawyer and Christian Zhang Kai has been held in police custody since August 25, 2015. Police climbed the walls of Xialing Church in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, where Zhang Kai was staying while he legally defended the church against the forced demolition of its cross, and took him into custody. Shortly after his apprehension, he was placed under “residential surveillance in a designated location,” better known as a “black jail”—a place where coercion tactics and torture are all too common. February 25 marked the authorities’ six-month deadline to take legal action against Zhang Kai after taking him into custody. On February 26, Zhang Kai was criminally detained after a “confession,” which is speculated to have been coerced, aired on state-run television. Zhang Kai is charged with “endangering state security” and “gathering a crowd to...

Tuesday, 01 March 2016 12:46 Yangchen Dolma, Tibet Post Internaitonal Washington D.C., US — International Tibet Network’s (ITN) 6th Americas Regional Meeting concluded in the United States capital, on Sunday, February 28. Over the course of three days, 40 people representing 18 organisations from 5 countries in the region participated in the intensive event, taking part in Workshops, Training and Campaign Planning. Tenzin Jigdal, ITN’s International Coordinator said: “This has been an inspiring and productive meeting, with participants working very hard on planning campaigns and developing strategies for increasing collaboration between Tibet Groups. The result is some strong campaign plans and robust discussions and proposals that address how important it is that Tibet Groups move forward together.” The meeting opened with an address by Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to North America Kaydor Aukatsang, in which he...

We are deeply saddened by the news of Tenzin Delek Rinpoche passing away in Chinese prison on July 12th, 2015. Tenzin Delek Rinpoche was a Tibetan political prisoner and Buddhist teacher. Our heart sank for the loss of a great leader, teacher and hero of Tibetan struggle of cultural, religious and environmental preservation. Tenzin Delek Rinpoche was arrested on April 7, 2002. He was sentenced to death on trumped-up charges of “crimes of terror and incitement of separatism.” However, a substantive report by Human Rights Watch in 2004 concluded that the charges against Tenzin Delek Rinpoche were politically motivated to undermine His Holiness the Dalai Lama as a religious leader and the Tibetan movement. According to his family members, that over the 13 years of unjust imprisonment and torture, Tenzin Delek Rinpoche had suffered critical medical conditions and was denied of...